Great Western Coffee Shop

This fascinating disused, and sadly moth-balled, funicular railway (the first underground funicular in the world) is hosting a couple of Open Days in 2010.

Sunday 25th April

Sunday 16th May

10am to 4pm both days.

Please note that for insurance reason children under 14 are not permitted.

Further information on the Clifton Rocks Railway can be found here. (http://www.cliftonrocksrailway.org.uk/)

Thanks for posting that, bignosemac!  :D

I shall certainly be attending one of those rare opportunities to view the railway, and its restoration!

It is very unlikely that the CRR will ever be restored to full operation, the lower station opens almost directly onto the A4 Portway, with just a very narrow footpath between it and the road, and there is simply no room left to allow for safe pedestrian access, short of skewing the road out over the river!

The tunnel itself was heavily modified during World War II, being converted for use as an emergency broadcasting station by the BBC. Concrete stairways were built over the tracks and the tunnel was comparmentalized into seperate rooms used for studios, relay rooms, and air-raid shelters.  Despite the heavy bombing that Bristol suffered during the war the BBC were able to continue broadcasting from sites above ground and so the facilities installed inside the CRR were never utilised.

Despite all this several original features remain, and these are what the restoration project is currently focusing on.

I suppose with enough will (and a lot of money!!) the funicular could be restored, but the problem of access to the lower (Hotwells) station seems insurmountable.

Having seen it, I can confirm that a huge amount of money would be required. And it's not really in a good place to be a tourist attraction, with poor access and parking at either end.

Well worth a visit though.  We had to queue for over half an hour on Open Doors weekend a couple of years ago, such was its popularity.

I'm off to visit this now.

Chris.  :)

Just returned from my visit: very interesting guided tours of the top station area (unfortunately, for quite practical safety reasons, it wasn't possible to go down the tunnels themselves).  Well worth a visit - it's free, though they obviously welcome donations!  ;) :D ;D

Further open days of this fascinating piece of railway history are upcoming this year.

There are open days on Sundays, 15th April and 13th May 2012.

Further information:

http://www.cliftonrocksrailway.org.uk/news_06.htm

The Clifton Rocks Railway has a new owner - Ian Johnson, who also owns the Clifton Observatory. According to Bristol 24/7 (https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/clifton-rocks-railway-to-be-brought-back-to-life/)


The most difficult problem to overcome for anyone seriously wishing to reopen this railway is the lower terminal, which fronts onto a narrow pavement on the busy A4 Portway (see https://goo.gl/maps/2j1guFwmLCqZDVz8A ). It is hard to see how this would work, but then maybe I lack Mr Johnson's imagination and business acumen - the Observatory, after all, seems to have been transformed in recent years.

Open day - 11th May 2019 - http://www.b-i-a-s.org.uk/rocks_railway_refurbishment.html#open_day . I am very tempted to go, having given a training course a few years ago to a group including the restoration chair, and finding that I was in the presence of someone even geekier and driven about this sir of stuff that I am.

Also Sat 14, Sun 15 September 10-4. Doors Open Day. https://www.bristoldoorsopenday.org. Free buses Saturday.

Edit to correct the latter link to https - my error for copying the link without checking

Unfortunately that link only takes you to a Domain Default page with the message "This page is generated by Plesk, the leading hosting automation software. You see this page because there is no Web site at this address."

I think they're stuck between 2018 and 2019 ... some early data for 2019:
https://www.architecturecentre.org.uk/whats-on/bristol-open-doors-2019/
also works better (but still flakey) with https - https://www.bristoldoorsopenday.org

I've seen a number of old pictures of the base station ... with trams running in front and the whole area being a very pleasant riverside promenade. But that all seems to have been swept away - so not only do you have the issue of "how would people exit the building?" but also "what would there be for them to do?"  I also wonder how big the circulation area is inside the building at the bottom of the cliff lift.

Looking at Street View and towards the centre of Bristol, I note a building with a ground level balcony / walk through and I wonder about railings close to the road edge and guiding people in to there.  Not sure what it is / who owns it, and how much people would need to go through the pinch point outside the lifts or could circulate inside to where it's wider ... but sadly I fear that it would be hard to do anything with the riverside of the road, with the difficulty of crossing, lack of width again, and vicious tidal range that make it very raw nature.   Perhaps turn the attraction round - run the Original Bristol City Open Bus tour along the Portway and drop off / pick everyone on the inbound side, and have them ride up to see Clifton and the Bridge?

The buildings just up the road toward Bristol are residential.

From time to time the A4 Portway is closed for maintenance, and this brings home to you just how appallingly intrusive the motor traffic that normally roars up and down the Avon Gorge is. Before the Portway, this was, as grahame says, a peaceful spot.

The Colonnade was originally a shopping arcade associated with Hotwell House, a large once-fashionable spa building  which was demolished in 1867 to widen the river. The Rocks Railway's lower terminus is  more or less behind the site of Hotwell House.

It's not a place you'd want to linger now.         

The Portway gets plenty of runners and cyclists.

I'd suggest that if you wanted to really do something special, you could build a walkway/cycleway out alongside the river, more or less over the remains of the wooden moorings. Stick some kind of cafe/education centre on it, with perhaps some kind of green 'wall' to separate it from the road and effectively you extend the harbourside walk up to the furnicular. 

Would have thought that you could get that for £10m, would have thought that the harbour company and the Merchant Venturers should be good for a chunk of that. 

You do though then have to get the pedestrians across the road to and from the funnycolour railway.

Logic is using the colonnade - which was originally shops rather than residences.   Lift to first floor and bridge across, slope down on one side of the bridge and steps on the other.

Alternatively, permanently close the Portway to private motor vehicles between Bridge Valley Road and Roman Way... discuss!

The Portway does get plenty of runners and cyclists but they tend to be either on their way to/from work or running and cycling for fitness/sport. Further west, this is easier and pleasanter; there's a wide pavement on the river side, which cyclists are allowed to use (a rare example of a "shared use" footway that actually works IMO) and for inbound cyclists, a wide bus lane. The bus lane ends at Bridge Valley Road and the pavement gets narrower, so from there inwards is not so pleasant. All a contrast to the Pill path on the other side of the Gorge.

I think the answer to "what will funicular passengers do at the bottom of the cliff?" is "go back up again". Surely the attraction will be the Rocks Railway itself? I can imagine it done up as a sort of museum/themed ride thingummy, perhaps with attendants in stove pipe hats (large cigars might not be allowed in tunnels nowadays). But who knows, there might even be one or two people who'd use it as an actual utilitarian transport connection, perhaps to get from Clifton to whatever bus might run along the A4 to Avonmouth.

I think it would depend on the way motorists react, especially for those going to and from the M5. It might result in effectively rerouting the A4 through suburban West Bristol to and from the Centre. Alternatively, motorists may alter their journey to and from the motorway, for example, using the Gordano/Abbots Leigh route or using the Cribbs Causeway junction. Would these routes cope with the upsurge in traffic? The Abbots Leigh route would certainly become more difficult.

Would a significant number of people instead use the Portway P&R (and coming station)? That would certainly be a help if that happened but that would really only work with a frequent and reliable bus and rail service accompanying it.

I think the media are over-hyping the story and implying that it will be restored to its former glory as a working funicular railway. This does not seem to be the case, indeed the wartime BBC studios and air raid shelters built inside the tunnel over the rails are now also part of its history.

Looking at going on Saturday ... but what a mess with no trains.  A comparison of the journey, setting off early on Thursday (when I have a car available), Friday, Saturday and Sunday - noting it's a "rail replacement bus" weekend ... with normal service buses far better than the rail ones ...

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/2clifthur.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/2cliffri.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/2clifsat.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/2clifsun.jpg)

Leaving later on Sunday ... arrive Clifton after noon is possible in 2 hours 18 minutes by bus.

I've just been to the open day. It's an interesting place and the volunteer guides are extremely knowledgeable, though my particular guide had an unfortunately less than engaging delivery. It seems from the tour that current plans are more to focus on it as a historical site than a railway.

I've been wanting to go for years ... and did so today. 

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/brr_20190511_05.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/brr_20190511_04.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/brr_20190511_03.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/brr_20190511_02.jpg)

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/brr_20190511_01.jpg)

Fascinating ... but sad that it's so limited in the area / parts that can be seen or these days even worked on. The hotel which owned it until a few days back limited work / trips in recent years to the top station because of their insurance; there's some trepidation as to what the new owner will do - having said which, that's a comment from someone I was chatting with who's not been central to any talks. Maggie sounded more positive, but then she's a go-getter who has seen the project, determined, through thick and thin to get this far.

Dr Maggie Shapland,who has done more than just about anyone else to see that the CRR survives to this day .